Turtle Wax loses another CEO

Turtle Wax Inc.'s top management is in flux again, with the latest CEO, investment banker Steve Knoop, exiting this past fall, the company said through a spokesman. A replacement hasn't been named.

Mr. Knoop was appointed in February by the Willowbrook-based private company's longtime Healy family owners and had big plans to transform the car wax company by expanding the product line, possibly through acquisitions. At the same time, he also became CEO of Healy Family Holdings Inc., a parent company created last year to hold the family's Turtle Wax and other assets. He's no longer in that role either.

The companies are chiefly owned by Denis Healy Sr., 78, and his wife, Sondra Healy, 74, co-chairmen of the car products company. Ms. Healy's father, Ben Hirsh, founded Turtle Wax after inventing the liquid auto polish in the 1930s.

“Denis Sr. and Sondra have never stepped away from the day-to-day running of the business,” Mr. Deady said in an emailed comment. “They are wildly passionate about this company.”

It's the second time in the past two years the company has been without a top executive. Mr. Healy's son, Denis Healy Jr., exited the job in the middle of last year after taking the helm in 2010. Denis Healy Sr. served as CEO at one point, and several brand specialists held the job after he stepped down.

Mr. Knoop, who had known the Healys for about a decade before taking the CEO post, had run his own financial advisory boutique in recent years and formerly was a managing director of the U.S. mergers and acquisitions group at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Chicago and the co-head of advisory services at Merrill Lynch, mainly for private businesses.

The elder Mr. Healy and his wife had been seeking a CEO successor and selected Mr. Knoop partly because he had been “a close confidant and adviser” to them, according to a news release from the company at the time of his appointment.

“Knoop assumes the position with a focus on expanding growth and sustaining financial soundness across the Healy Family Holdings portfolio of businesses,” the statement said.

When he was hired, Mr. Knoop said the company was profitable, but he declined to provide details on earnings or revenue.

The company, which has about 200 employees, makes some 1,250 car products, including wipes for car interiors, scratch repair kits and chrome polish, and sells them in 90 countries, with more than 20 percent of sales outside the U.S.